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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28221540">Yuletide</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Humanity_Sucks2002/pseuds/Humanity_Sucks2002'>Humanity_Sucks2002</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bellamort One-Shots [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne &amp; Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, F/M, First Display of Magic, Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, Inspired By Tumblr, Maybe a little OOC, Normal British Levels of Drinking, Party, They really should be paying more attention to the toddler, Yuletide, does this count as fluff?, i'm not sure</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:08:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,207</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28221540</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Humanity_Sucks2002/pseuds/Humanity_Sucks2002</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Delphini's first display of magic.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Voldemort, Delphi &amp; Bellatrix Black Lestrange, Delphi &amp; Voldemort (Harry Potter)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bellamort One-Shots [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2188704</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Yuletide</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Yeah this is based on an ask from the tumblr account asktheheirofslytherin - which you should check out if you haven't already because it's hilarious.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Malfoy’s Yule party had been particularly extravagant that year. It was the first big party that they had hosted since the end of the war and, now that they were certain that the Order of the Phoenix was not going to make an unwelcome appearance, they had put their all into it.</p><p>The ballroom in Malfoy manor was exquisite. Elegant, expensive but understated decorations covered every wall. Miles of burgundy, deep green, and gold velvet had been draped about the ballroom to hide the normal darkness of the walls. In one corner, a towering, perfectly-shaped Yule tree, strung about with real candles and icicles charmed not to melt in the heat of the room, stood. Besides that, was a buffet table so stuffed with food that it was almost inevitable that someone was going to knock a plate off at some point in the evening.</p><p>It was a beautiful party; even Voldemort could not deny that. As new leader of the country he had to socialise – much to his chagrin - so he was there to make an appearance. It was expected. He milled around, talking to different deatheaters and just generally trying to enjoy himself when he really did not want to be there.</p><p>This lack of enthusiasm was in complete juxtaposition with Bellatrix. She had been positively buzzing with excitement when she found out he was coming, and had been making not-so-subtle comments about wanting to dance with him for the last few days.</p><p>“Please, my lord? It’s Yule!” She was stood next to him, a very large glass of pinot in one hand. She was more than a little tipsy, and smirking. Voldemort rolled his eyes, not without a little bit of affection but he would not admit to that.</p><p>“Bella – I haven’t danced in decades.” And he had no intention of starting now. That really would not improve this party for him. He had danced before, back in Hogwarts when it was expected. He hadn’t been awful at it, Tom Riddle had been better than most, but he really did hate it. And if you can’t stop doing things you don’t enjoy when you are a dictatorial leader of a country – when can you stop doing them?</p><p>“Well, now is the perfect time to start!” She said, gesturing to the other dancers with her wine free hand. There were several couples already dancing. Draco Malfoy was dancing with one of his schoolfriends, Voldemort believed the boy’s name was Zambini, laughing and chatting quite loudly the entire time. 
Narcissa and Lucius were dancing together, Narcissa resting her head on Lucius’ chest. It was very romantic – and quite disgusting to Voldemort.</p><p>Fenrir Greyback was there, dancing like he was listening to a completely different piece of music to everyone else. Everyone else heard a slow waltz, Fenrir heard rave music. He was ignored by everyone. He normally would not be invited to things like this however Narcissa Malfoy was in a feud with Winnifred Yaxley, so none of that family had been invited. Greyback was there to fill up space.</p><p>“You’re drunk – I doubt you could keep standing up straight.” As if to prove his point, Bellatrix stumbled, her heels giving out a little bit under her. He could not see her feet under the skirts of her dress but he knew that is what just happened. She tried to cover it up. At this, she was unsuccessful.</p><p>“I’m just a little buzzed, I’m fine.” Bellatrix took a very deep drink from her wine glass. “I danced in Camden much drunker than this.”</p><p>“Didn’t you break your ankle doing that?”</p><p>“Well, yes and no. I didn’t break it when I was dancing, I fell of the curb afterward and then CRACK!” She mimed the injury and laughed about it.</p><p>Voldemort did not find it as funny as she did. She'd gone home, not recognising the injury because of how intoxicated she had been, then woke up the next morning feeling everything. Then, she’d missed an important mission against the remaining members of the Order because she’d spent the morning in St Mungos. That may have been a bit of an overreaction to the injury – he could have healed it within a few seconds – but she’d wanted to make sure that the ankle was not permanently weakened. He shook his head.</p><p>“And this is supposed to make me want to dance with you now, how?”</p><p>“I’m not as drunk and it is a waltz, my lord.” She moved a little closer to him. 
Outwardly, she did so to avoid the little children that were running around the ballroom, making general chaos of themselves but not so much that any of the adults were bothered to correct them. The children were being led by one of the young Selwyn girls, who had brought a wooden sword she’d been given as a Yule present with her. She brandished it like it was the sword in the stone and she had been designated Queen of the round table. Voldemort was however certain that Bellatrix was just using them as an excuse to corner him into dancing with her. Had it been anyone else, he would have cursed her, but Voldemort knew she was only being so bold because of the magic grape juice in her hand.</p><p>“I hate the waltz.” That was untrue. Hate is a strong word: he didn’t hate it, he just disliked it. It was better than tango, or whatever the hell kind of music Fenrir was pretending to dance too.</p><p>“We’ve danced the waltz before, my lord.”</p><p>“When did we - ? Bella that was your <strong>wedding</strong> that doesn’t count!” They had only danced for one song, then she’d been swept off back to dance with her new husband, and her father, and her father-in-law. It had been a terrible wedding, all things considered. Very boring.</p><p>“It does count.” She insisted. “And we waltzed in Paris, in ’74.”</p><p>“Ah. Yes. Yes, we did. But that was the last time.”</p><p>There was a pause for a moment, where one of the children fell over and busted his knee open in the middle of the room. There was blood everywhere and children were screaming. Narcissa was fussing over getting blood on the carpet and got in an argument with the child’s father, who insisted that her decorations were less important than his son’s health.</p><p>Voldemort rolled his eyes, then looked around to see where Delphini had gone. She had not been playing with that group – she was two after all – but she seemed to have slipped out of sight.</p><p>He spotted her sitting on a chair next to the buffet table with the Rosier girl. They had been playing dolls or something together, but the Rosier girl was now asleep. Delphini was also very sleepy after a long day of being a toddler. She was dressed very cutely – in a dark blue dress with little snowflakes around the bottom of the skirt – and was yawning widely. Her head lolled: she would start falling asleep, her head would fall forward and it would wake her up before she got the chance to tumble off the chair. Voldemort watched her out of the corner of his eye, just in case she didn’t catch herself and he would need to stop her cracking her head open. 
One of them should probably take her home. That could be a good opportunity to escape – Voldemort thought. Perfect cover.</p><p>“I’m sure we danced at Narcissa’s wedding too.” Bellatrix picked the conversation back up again, as the screaming child was taken away, scuppering the opportunity that he could have used to escape.</p><p>“Possibly, I can’t remember much of that wedding to be honest.” He sighed. He had made a promise the morning after that wedding to never – ever – touch cocktails again. Especially if they were an unnatural colour, such as the blue abominations that the drinks had been during that party.</p><p>“It was beautiful, and we did dance!” Bellatrix grinned widely upon remembering it, and gesticulated with her wineglass to make her point better. “We danced to the Moonlight Serenade, and then I spilled my cocktail on my bridesmaid dress and we screwed in the bathroom.”</p><p>Voldemort looked as though his head was about to explode, he grabbed Bellatrix’s arm and pulled her in a little closer. This seemed to be exactly what Bellatrix wanted him to do as she laughed quite jovially, not scared of him in any way. She took another deep drink of the pinot.</p><p>“Sshhh – not in public!” He hissed, looking around and hoping that nobody had heard her saying that. It didn’t seem like anyone had. Lucius – the main distributor of gossip around the deatheater ranks – was busy, on the other side of the ballroom, chatting with Rookwood and pouring a glass of mulled wine for Narcissa.</p><p>“Oh, so you’ll have sex in public but not talk about it?” Bellatrix said, at just the right volume that someone could hear it, if they put their mind to listening to their conversation, but not loud enough to be considered shouting.</p><p>“Silencio.” He cast the silencing charm on her, instead of answering the question. Bellatrix was peeved with this and started talking again. No noise came out, but she was clearly talking very quickly and – although Voldemort was not a very good lip reader – he could make out that she was saying very explicit sexual comments. It was quite childish – but he was mildly amused. “Right, I’m confiscating the drink.” Voldemort took the pinot out of her hand and put it down on the table behind them.</p><p>“Wait…nooo…” She was still silenced, but it was very clear to him as to what she was saying. She did not try to get it back, because she was not drunk enough to get in a scuffle with the Dark Lord himself. But she was not happy about it. She was not happy about it at all.</p><p>Voldemort shook his head, with a huff of a laugh, and looked away from her, scanning the room to see if anything interesting had happened. The blood had been cleaned up. The dancing had continued. Fenrir was devouring olives like they were the secret to eternal life.</p><p>Bellatrix was trying to get his attention to take the silencing charm off her when he spotted Delphini moving out of the corner of his eyes. She was getting to her feet, atop the chair, very wobblily. She steadied herself and peered around at the food on the buffet table. Voldemort wondered whether she was going to fall into the table. There was a large bowl of punch right near where she was stood – she could fall head first into the bowl very easily.</p><p>He was about to move over to her, stop her from making a mess, when he had to stop.</p><p>She stretched her arms out, her fingers pinching the air, like it would make her be able to reach whatever it was she wanted. Much to Voldemort’s surprise, a chocolate covered strawberry politely levitated out of the bowl of other fruits and floated into her little hands. She giggled as she caught it. With a pleased grin, she clumsily sat back down again. Her little shoes swung back and forth, as she sat there, eating the fruit.</p><p>Delphini was completely unaware that she was being watched, but both of her parents were watching her – mouths agape. She had finished the strawberry by the time the both of them were able to articulate their shock.</p><p>Voldemort released the silencing charm from Bellatrix. Her hand came to rest gently on his shoulder, her eyes wide, watching Delphini from afar. Delphini yawned, and rubbed her eyes with her little hands. She had chocolate from the strawberry on her face.</p><p>“Was that…?” Bellatrix began to ask but trailed off. “She’s two!”</p><p>That she was. Two years old and already showing her first signs of magic. Most children start to show their magic at around three or four, or even five. And here she was, clearly showing her power. Power that he had expected of course – Bella wouldn’t produce a squib and <strong>he</strong> certainly wouldn’t – but still it was fantastic to see. He could not help but be very pleased with the display. Very pleased indeed.</p><p>“Ok Bella – one dance.” He sighed, feeling generous after all. Just because it was Yule. Just because he was in a good mood. She cheered and offered him her arm, which he took while shaking his head. “But then I’m going home and I’m taking Delphini home too. You can come with us or stay here.”</p><p>“Eh, I’ll come with you, my lord. It’s boring here.” She shrugged as though it didn’t matter to her either way, although Voldemort knew that Bellatrix was always overjoyed to spend any sort of time with him. She linked her fingers around his and pulling him into a dancing position. He put his hand to her lower back, and pulled her closer into the correct way in which one should stand to do a waltz. He wasn’t about to do it incorrectly now was he?</p><p>“Agreed.” He said, and swayed elegantly together. Perhaps it had been a good party after all.  </p>
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